Some weird creatures that appeared out of thin air in the park of Ponyville use an unknown spell, which causes everypony to change their race.
Three creature appear out of thin air in the park of Ponyville, causing a magical cataclysm that changes the race or even the species of everypony. In the process two of the creatures turn into statues. The last one, a riding horse named Confidant becomes a unicorn. Being separated from his rider he's scared and tries to find a new place for himself.
Twilight and her friends on the other hoof try to understand what exactly has happened and more importantly find out how to reverse it.
Some notifications: The human tag is there because Lyra and Bonbon will be human(ish). [Who will appear in chapter 2] I'm still looking for an editor if you are interested PM me. Also, I really like comments, especially constructive criticism.
It was the afternoon of the day after Twilight's coronation. She was having a picnic with Spike and her friends in the park of Ponyville. Rainbow Dash was boasting how she would teach Twilight to fly again. It was a bit embarrassing for her, but the only time she was able to fly was at the coronation. Since then she couldn't even lift off.
She was only listening with half an ear, because her mind has returned to the conversation she had with Princess Celestia after the coronation was over. Celestia had talked about the Equestrian politics with her and assured, that she didn't need her help for the daily tasks. Therefore she gave Twilight the choice to return to Ponyville and live there with her friends. Only in times of need she and, if needed, her friends should come to aid.
She smiled to herself. It felt so good to be still here. Sure, the bowing and the exaggerated courtesies the citizens showed to her last evening and this morning became annoying in less than an hour. She had therefore given a short speech to the ponies of Ponyville earlier that day, so that she wouldn’t be treated differently.
She liked the announcement, even if it has cost her the whole night. It was a detailed explanation of why she didn't want to be treated like royalty, but still like a normal citizen of the town. The argumentation was flawless, she had cited a lot of well known ponies and used a lot of stylistic devices. In her eyes it was a masterpiece.
It was a shame that some of the other citizen didn't like it as much as she did. At the end of the speech the crowd has thinned out a bit and some ponies had to be woken up, but she was sure everypony at least got the message. That was the most important goal.
“Twilight, could you do it again?” asked a bouncing Pinkie Pie, bringing Twilight back to the present.
She blinked a few times. “What do you want me to do?”
“Transform into an alicorn. Wait, you are already a princess. So change back into a unicorn and then transform into an alicorn again!” stated Pinkie as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Pinkie, it doesn't work that way,” Twilight answered already preparing a small lecture about her change.
“Can you change into an earth pony then?” Pinkie replied, which caused Twilight to facehoof in defeat and scrap the lesson she prepared seconds ago.
There was a strange sound. It was a bit like ripping fabric, but far louder, at least as loud as Princess Luna using her Royal Canterlot Voice. Everypony turned to look into the direction of its source.
---.---
It was easy to follow the target. The speed of it could be matched easily in a slow gallop. The exchange of magical attacks between it and Arlok was troubling, but no fear emerged. Everything would be okay in the end. With Arlok nothing bad could happen.
There was a strange noise, a display of weird magic and from one moment to the other the landscape changed completely. The woods, in which they have been, were replaced by grassland near a small town.
With this change the target turned around, while coming to an abrupt halt. In its motion to stop it unleashed a big orange ball of magical power far greater than the attacks before aiming at Arlok. His weight on the back was almost immediately removed.
A second of fear that Arlok might be hurt passed, but was brushed away by his words: “Thank you, Confidant. Get some rest, I can finish it alone.” With that hunger and thirst came back.
There was a well some steps away. A mithril-barded horse could be seen inside the water, but it hid at the moment, when the muzzle touched the water. The water was cold and refreshing.
Suddenly an enormous magical shock wave was unleashed.
There was no time to act.
It washed over everything.
The world faded.
Things changed.
---.---
What happened next was so weird and ended so quickly, that Twilight didn't have time to process it, let alone to react on it before everything was over. To understand even parts of it, far more time would pass.
At first an extremely huge wolf, at least 3 meters high, appeared out of thin air. It was running, but after two leaps it dug its massive fore claws into the ground to stop and turn itself around. In the same motion it seemed to throw a strange orange thing with its tail back into the direction it came from.
At the same moment something else manifested at the place, where the wolf had appeared maybe a second ago. It was a giant earth pony or at second thought, more likely a horse from Saddle Arabia, about the size of Princess Celestia herself, which was completely covered in a silvery armor. On its back was a creature that seemed to be a huge wing- and hornless changeling with red glowing eyes and an emerald mist floating around it. It hold an enormous black thing, that was blazing in the sunlight, in its fore hooves.
The orange ball hit the changeling, which was sent flying backwards. It touched the ground with its fore hooves to bounce off making a backflip to land on its hind legs, while the horse changed direction and became slower.
The changeling breathed a green ball of weird flames into the direction of the wolf. But somehow a bush of roses grew rapidly and took the shot, which caused it to wither down as fast as it grew up moments before.
The changeling was now running on its hind legs, which were longer than the fore legs. Its hooves were strangely malformed. Another detail that caught her attention was, that the grass below it turned black and brown.
It reached the wolf after about five steps and swung the black thing with all its might at the wolf. The wolf, now engulfed in orange and blue lights, in return attacked the weird changeling with its massive left claw.
Before any of the two attacks could reach its destination, their was a blinding flash of light.
---.---
As the flash of magic faded Confidant felt strange. In fact, “felt strange” was a big understatement. He wasn't able to put a finger on it, but something, no, everything in fact, seemed off somehow.
As his sight came back he was looking into the water. A horse in mithril barding was looking back at him. But it was different to any horse he had seen before. It had a horn on its head and its eyes were orange.
Confidant was a bit scared, so he made a step back. Surprisingly the horse did the same. In fact its actions paralleled his own so perfectly that his fear turned into curiosity. He stepped slowly forward again approaching the water with his head. The strange horse on the other side of the water did the same, again perfectly synchronous to himself. Confidant raised his left hoof, while the other raised the right, again perfect in the same way as he himself.
It began to dawn on him, that this “other horse” was in reality nothing more than a reflection of himself. But wouldn't that mean, that he had this horn on his head? He looked upwards to search for it, and yes indeed he could spot it.
He could see a faint and unfamiliar magic around it. But that didn't matter at the moment, because now he was pondering. Has something else changed? He tried to remember, how he looked before, but somehow he couldn't. He had no memory about his past appearance, in fact he wasn't even sure, what he had been before the flash.
The armor-clad hooves seemed familiar to him, so he assumed, that they had stayed the same as they had been before, but anything else about his former self was shrouded in mystery.
He just knew that horses don't have orange eyes or horns. But what told him that he has been a horse before? Maybe he had always looked that way and he hadn't seen a reflection of himself before? But shouldn't he at least be aware of the fact that he had had a horn? And shouldn't he at least know what kind of creature he was?
---.---
Pinkie had covered her eyes before the flash happened. She was still blinded somehow, but she recovered much faster than any of her friends. Her eyes fell onto the two squabblers, who have both be turned into statures: the wolf into one made of stone with colorful crystals for eyes and claws and the other creature into one made of a silvery metal.
The strange giant pony was still standing near the well, but he has changed a lot. He looked in fact far more like a normal pony, although he was still very big. His legs weren't as thin as before, his muzzle has shortened and his tail know described a small arc instead of just pointing straight down to the ground. The tail has also changed its color from brown to the green of the spooky mist that surrounded the two-legged one before it became a statue. But the most amazing thing was, that he had now a horn. He somehow became a unicorn!
The only pony, who has changed her race was Twilight and now Pinkie saw another one doing this trick. Pinkie wanted to know how he did that. And his name. And why he let that meanie sit on his back. And she wanted to welcome him in Ponyville. So she made a step to appear behind him. But instead of arriving there, she just made a normal step forward.
She frowned. As far as she knew she wasn't watched, therefore she shouldn't be still there. She looked back to see if her being-looked-at-senses tricked her.
Her eyes fell on her friends, who where still holding their fore hooves in front of their eyes, and her jaw dropped to the ground. They had changed as well! Rarity, Applejack and Spike became pegasi, Fluttershy a unicorn and Rainbow Dash and Twilight were now earth ponies. Pinkie Pie concluded, that she might have changed as well.
Looking back she found no wings, but when she looked for a horn she found a bright pink one on her head. She grinned in glee. She would have much fun with it. And with that she teleported to the armored unicorn, leaving a small cloud of confetti behind.
---.---
Confidant was pulled out of his thoughts, when something pink appeared to his left. He jumped away, yelping in surprise. It was a pony, a brightly pink pony mare with a pink horn and a fluffy pink mane, that looked a lot like cotton candy. And she talked to him! It was in a language he couldn't understand, but still a spoken language with a broad variety of different phonemes. He began to belief he was dreaming, because he was quite sure that pink ponies don't exist. Especially talking pink ponies with horns don't exist, so he had to be dreaming.
He knew a spell that gave him the ability to understand what someone wants to tell. He concentrated on the pink dream pony and casted it.
“... and then we will have a party! Uh, what was that?” The dream pony looked confused at him, tilting her head. “Can you do that again?” She began to jump on the spot.
He wanted to answer, but he couldn't form words. He was in a dream, she was able to speak, so why wasn't he himself? He decided, that it was quite pointless to argue with the logic of a dream. Since his last spell seemed to work, he focused for another one.
This time he concentrated on a telepathy spell directed at the bouncing pony. “Can you hear me?”, Sending his words through his magic to her.
“Sure,” she smiled at him, “That was you, wasn't it? Are you a ventriloquist?” She asked.
“No, I used a telepathy spell to be able to communicate with you.”
She stopped jumping, staying somehow in midair for some moments, and instead looked at him bewildered. “Why?”, she asked and dropped to the ground. She continued talking after about half a second: “Oh, oh, a guessing game! You've got-”
“That wasn't intended as a guessing game. I used the spell since I can't form words neither in realty nor in this dream,” he interrupted her, only for her to go on with the talking.
“I'm dreaming? But where are the flying...”
“No,” he interrupted her again, “I am dreaming, since whatever seemed to have happened to me and the fact of your mere existence are crimes against the laws of reality, so this must be a dream.” The fluffy mane of the pink pony became flat almost instantly, her eyes filled with tears and she cried loudly.
Confident backed away some steps. He was sorry for her, even if she wasn't real, but he had no clue what to do. He looked around seeing some other weird colored horses, some with wings and one with a horn, but paid them no real attention. For some reason he expected to find Arlok behind him. So he turned his head in hope that Arlok would help him.
He froze in terror at what he saw. Arlok was indeed behind him, but he had turned into a statue! It had his magical structure, only the chilly, calming dust was somehow missing. Instead of it he was enclosed in thick layers of chaotic magic.
A banishment spell.
Confidant used their mind link to ask what happened, just to receive a diffuse but intense feeling of pain, panic and absolute horror. The pain overwhelmed him and his knees gave in. Some moments later the pain was gone. But the insight that this was quite likely reality remained.
He tried frenetic to undo the curse that was put on Arlok, but it was in vain. The spellbreakers, he knew, were either for creatures with hands or were far to weak.
He sacked to the ground and curled up. His vision became blurry. He was alone. Arlok his guardian and guide for so long had been turned into a statue and he was stranded in a strange and quite likely hostile place, that seemed to simply ignore the rules he thought to be true.
---.---
Twilight felt like she was hit by a train. She had a serious headache and her eyes hurt as if they were on fire. She couldn't form coherent thoughts until her sight returned to her and the pain vanished with it.
Has Rainbow spiked that Punch? was the first thought that came to her mind. Everything she saw was covered, no, infused with some strange substance. The theory was additionally supported by the fact, that she saw Rarity, but with wings and no horn. She saw that the strange ‘substance’ was concentrated in her wings, with additional points of higher concentration in the hooves and around the muzzle. This ‘substance’ had no color and in fact no truly visual appearance, it was still somehow connected with pictures, but also with sensation of touch. The ‘substance’ in Rarity felt like clouds and was very soft.
After some moments she realized, that she heard a crying pony. She looked in that direction to see Pinkie Pie with a horn sitting near the well drenched in tears.
Twilight also saw the statues of the two combatants. Their ‘substance’, a mixture of colors, forms and things she had never seen before, felt just wrong in so many ways, that it mentally hurt her to just see them.
Twilight shivered and turned her head away, but decided she needed to help her friend. She ran to Pinkie trying to avoid looking at the combatants turned statues.
Pinkies ‘substances’ was more like water, but also had some sort of softness about it. It was concentrated on the same place like it was in Rarity, just that her horn was the point of the biggest concentration, since she lacked the wings. When she reached Pinkie she was aware of the wrongness within the statues, even though she looked into the other direction.
It took a while to calm the party pony enough, that she could tell Twilight what happened. After a short explanation about the exchange with the armored pony, Twilight was eager to teach this bully some manners.
She looked back, carefully, trying to not get the statues into her view. While doing so, she became aware, that a thinner ‘substance’ similar to Pinkies was in front of one of the statues. She didn't really believed that he was there, since this ‘substance’ had to be some weird hallucinations, but what did she had to lose? So she looked at the position, where she felt the ‘substance’ and to her surprise, she found a big armored unicorn there.
He was curled up, shivering and silently crying in front of the statue of the weird changeling that was earlier on his back. Her anger at him vanished and was replaced with sympathy as she saw the picture of misery in front of her. She moved towards him.
She noticed, that he had four different kinds of ‘substance’. Around his horn, muzzle and hooves was this water ‘substance’ like Pinkie had, but it felt a bit different. She couldn't tell what this difference was exactly, but she was sure it was there.
‘Substance’ like oil flooded through him, focused in his front hooves, eyes and his tail, while his armor seemed to be imprinted with ‘substance’ that seemed to be like a cross between ink and glass, shaped in strange symbols that had no meaning to her. The last ‘substance’ was like sand, that burned in an ice-cold fire, which was mainly located in his skull and in his chest.
She came to a stop right next to him.“Mister, are you okay?” But he didn't answer.
To her dismay she clearly felt the ‘substance’ of the statue, but the awareness became surprisingly dim, when she thought about not wanting to feel it. Nevertheless she wanted to leave this place as soon as possible. So she touched his shoulder.
He opened his eyes, saw her, backed away, only to be stopped by the statue directly behind him. He looked at her with great fear in his eyes. She jumped back a little, as she didn't expect such a strong reaction. After a moment of shock she saw how his eyes glowed for a moment in white light, while some of the oily ‘substance’ launched forward to hit her right between the eyes. This happened so fast she couldn't even close her eyes before it hit her. She still tried to evade it, although it had already hit her.
“What... what do you want?” asked a scared male voice. She couldn't make out where it came from. As far she could see through the breathing holes of his helmet, he hadn't moved his mouth, but his fearful gaze was focused on her.
“Was that you?” she concluded more as a statement than as a question.
“Um... y...yes?” was the shaky response that she heard in her head. She wondered why he didn't use his mouth, but decided that now wasn't the time to satisfy her curiosity.
“I'm here to help. What has happened to you?” she asked with genuine concern in her voice.
“Why?” was the only reply she received.
“Pardon?” returned a perplexed Twilight.
“Why would you help me? Only Arlok and those he paid have ever cared for me.”
For a moment she felt bad for him, but then she remembered that he had bluntly hurt her friend feelings. “You know this might be because you're rude to ponies you talk to?” replied Twilight coldly.
He seemed to panic. “Please, I'm not used to talk. I didn't even knew she was real, please, don't hurt me!” Twilight looked at him bewildered. “I won't hurt you, but why are you not used to talk?”
But before he could response Twilight heard Rarity scream, “THIS. IS. THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING.”
Rainbow Dash followed with her own scream not a second after Rarities had ended “MY WINGS! THEY'RE GONE!”
Twilight looked into the direction of her friends. She saw Rainbow Dash and Rarity panicking. Fluttershy and Applejack, who have changed to a unicorn and a pegasus, respectively, tried to calm Rainbow Dash down even though both were clearly scared and confused themselves. Rarity was tended by a purple pegasus stallion with green hair, who had no cutie mark. Other than anypony else he seemed happy. Twilight couldn't shake off the feeling, that he looked familiar to her.
Other screams could be heard from the direction of Ponyville. Twilight saw some other ponies, that have been walking through the park before were now running back into town. As far as she could remember them, they had changed as well.
She took a deep breath. The drug hypothesis was pretty sure false. Something big, something bad had happened and was about to cause chaos. It was her task to find out what exactly happened and to reverse its effects.
She walked over to her friends. They had much to do.
Lyra was together with Bon Bon in the park. They had been sitting on the bench here, when the flash had changed them. Some minutes have passed since then. Bon Bon was again sitting on the bench, while Lyria was standing in front of it watching and testing her new body in amazement.
She had read a lot about mythological creatures and many of them fascinated her, one of her favorites among them was the human. Sure, they were depicted in most of the old tomes as bringer of change and therefore chaos, as uncaring for others and unable to foresee the results of their reckless and megalomanic actions. But they were also shown as incredible craftsponies, musicians and artists, blessed with dexterity and creativity that only very few ponies could hope to match.
She always dreamed to meet one, hoping to find inspiration. Now she got something even more exciting: She became one. Sure some minor details were different. She didn't get fangs, that were mentioned in some of the books and she couldn't remember to have read about those two soft orbs of flesh on her chest. But the main facts were right: the only hair she or Bon Bon could see was the shoulder long mane on her head and the small patches just above her eyes. Her muzzle was so short that it didn't protrude the rest of her head anymore, except for a small peak for her nostrils in the middle of her face. Her ears were monkey-like and as far as she could tell unmovable. She had hands and torso like a minotaur, only far less muscular. Last but not least she had long hind legs, somewhat like those of a young dragon, with long flat paws which made it easy to walk on just those two legs.
The transformation gave her for some odd reasons clothes. A lot of clothes. More clothes than she had ever worn at once before. Maybe even more clothes than she had worn in her whole life combined.
On her head was a small hat with a feather adorning it. Her upper body was covered with three layers of clothes: a thin jacket, a blouse and for the deepest layer a very soft piece of cloth, that seemed only to be there to hold this two flesh orbs on her chest. The flanks and legs were covered with trousers, while the flanks were additionally covered with a small skirt, that didn't reached her knees. Skirt and trouser were hold in position by a belt made of fabric. Her feet were in a pair of socks, which were enclosed in a pair of shoes.
Maybe there were even more clothes underneath this pile, but she hadn't found those yet. She didn't know about the piece below her blouse, until she took the blouse off. Since it was quite cold without it, she put it back on, as soon as she had a good look at her upper body.
Interestingly all the clothes were colored in her old coat and mane colors, her mane stayed pretty much the same and even her cutie marks were still there, although they were now on the backside of her hands. That was pretty cool, since they couldn't be seen otherwise under the enormous amounts of clothes she wore at the moment.
She expected, that this transformation wouldn't last long. The Elements of Harmony would restore everything to normal in maybe an hour or if she was lucky in a day. But till then she wanted to have fun with her new body. Especially she wanted to see, what these hands could be used for.
---.---
Bon Bon wasn't as happy as Lyra about the change. In fact she didn't like it at all. But Lyra's explanation, that everything would return to normal in a few hours, had sooth her fears and it was nice to see Lyra to be so happy and excited, so she accepted the fate to be a weird abomination temporary.
Bon Bons form was even for Lyra, who had quite likely read the whole sections about folklore in the Canterlot and the Ponyville library, a mystery. She had her normal body from her shoulders back to the tail, although it was now bigger than before, but where her neck should be was a human upper body instead. If she held her human part upright she was as big as Lyra. Her mane color remained, but her hair was now so long, that it reached her pony back although the hair only grew on her head and not on the whole neck down. Like Lyra she got a lot of clothes, although not as many as her. Like Lyra she got a blouse and that very soft cloth underneath it. Additionally she got a plain long skirt and a set of shoes for her hooves, but she had taken them off because she saw no use in them. As for Lyra all her clothes were in her coat or mane colors. Her cutie mark was on the back side of her human hands and also on her pony flanks.
She watched a very happy Lyra experimenting with her new hands. A smile crossed Bon Bons face, only some hours and everything will be alright again.
---.---
Lyra made progress at understanding and controlling her hands. She could move each finger individually, even if she had to focus to do this. Opening and closing them all together was also possible.
In almost every story she had read about humans, they have at some point climbed up or down from a tree. So after some minutes of finger training she decided, that this was the first thing, she would try out. Conveniently there was a tree right beside the bench, just perfect for climbing up.
Unfortunately it wasn't that easy. In addition that she didn't know how to climb up the tree, she still had difficulties controlling her hands. But she didn't give up. After about dozen failed attempts she was now sitting on the lowest branch of the tree. Her arms and legs hurt a bit, so she looked around a bit, before she would decide what to do next. She had a surprisingly good view from her raised seating position.
She could see Lily, Rose and somepony else, who had to be Daisy, lying on the road in front of Lilies house at the edge of the park. They had changed into a crystal unicorn, a bat pony and griffin respectively and have obviously fainted collectively after they saw what they have become. She thought a moment about helping them, but was distracted by Derpy.
Derpy has changed into an alicorn and was flying through the air, leaving a trail of big bubbles behind her. Lyra hoped, that she didn't cast magic without guidance. With her incredible amount of ill luck, this would quite likely end in disaster. Shocked she saw a flash of light in front of Derpy. But the end of the world didn't come, at least not yet. Instead at the position of the flash something small appeared in the hooves of the gray alicorn, who brought the thing to her mouth. Lyra exhaled. She very likely just summoned a muffin and was soon out of sight.
After that Lyra’s eyes fell onto the changed bearers of the elements and a purple pegasus with a green mane, which had to be Spike. They were standing around a unicorn soldier in a shining armor, who was cowering in front of them.
It looked funny, since Lyra estimated he would be at least twice the size of the other ponies, if he would be standing, and she expected, that the armor would make him look quite impressive, if he wouldn't sit there shivering like a scared bunny in front of a hydra.
Behind him was a strange new sculpture made of two ugly statues, she had never seen before. Directly behind the armored unicorn was a silvery statue that looked a bit like a human attacking the other statue with a long thing. She expected the thing to be a so called ʻswordʼ, a weapon unicorns have used in the times before the union of the three pony tribes. The reason for this assumption was simple: every human in folklore had a sword at least a very small one. She couldn't see any details of the statue, but something about its head was amiss. The other statue was an extreme oversized wolf made of stone and decorated with something multicolored. It towered over the human by at least half of her size and its length was about three times the human's height. Its left claw was about to smash the human away.
She had no clue, why this sculpture was there. Well, on second thought, its appearance had to be connected with the changes that occurred, since she couldn't believe that such a brutal sculpture would get the permission to be placed in the park of Ponyville.
She wanted to have a closer look on the human statue. Therefore she grabbed the branch she was sitting on and swung down. The result was far less elegant than she hoped, but she still reached the ground with only some minor bruises. Bon Bon just raised an eyebrow, when Lyra told her what she was up to, but said she would come with her.
They went across the lawn behind the bench towards the group of ponies. Suddenly, when Lyra and Bon Bon were about 20 meters behind the group, the armored pony saw her and jumped into a standing position and ran straight into her direction.
She could see fear in his eyes. A voice she couldn't identify, where it came from whispered in a terrified voice “Please, rescue me!” Although the voice was surely adult, it sounded more like a frighten child. Before she could say anything he was ducking behind her with his hooves in front of his eyes. Such childlike behavior from a grown stallion would have amused her, if she wouldn't pity him.
“What have you done to him?” Lyra asked reproachful, while she crouched down beside him.
“We just asked him some questions about what happened!” returned Twilight, showing no sign of remorse for her actions. Her hair was disheveled and she was irritated. The others of the group were mainly in the same shape, although some took it better, like Spike, some worse, like Rarity. “Besides who, and more importantly what are you?” asked Twilight.
A second Lyra was unsure how to reply to the youngest princess. Lyra has known Twilight from Canterlot even before she moved here and has been regularly in the library since then. Still the term 'friends' would be far fetched. Then Twilight speech came to mind, at least the beginning part until Lyra fell asleep at the remarkable soft ground in front of the town hall. So she decided for a casual response, “It's me, Lyra, and I became a human.” She pointed with her thumb into the direction of Bon Bon. “Even if we have no idea what Bon Bon became.”
“I think she's a centaur,” replied the bodiless voice calmer than before. She looked at the stallion who was looking back at her. The fear hasn't completely left his eyes, but through the small set of breathing holes she could see a thin smile on his lips. She became aware of the fact that she was unconsciously stroking his head or better the helmet. It startled her that he seemed to appreciated this action.
“Thank you, um … what's your name?”
“I'm Confidant,” was the short reply of the bodiless voice, that had to be his.
“Thank you, Confidant. My name is Lyra by the way. Could you tell me what a centaur is?” she asked him.
The answer she received was far longer than she expected and it created more new questions than it solved: “A centaur looks like a cross between a human and a horse. They're one of the mankinds. They often do physical labor, because they are normally stronger than humans. They can eat everything a human or a horse could digest, giving them one of the most versatile food tables known. Their magical abilities are normally a bit worse than that of human. In a fight they tend to wield spears, bows or lances.”
After the answer Lyra was silent for some seconds, lost in thoughts. He sounded like the world was filled with humans and that battles were quite common. At first she thought he had to be insane. But when she looked over him, she realized the quality of his armor. A degree of quality, that after what an old foalhood friend of her told her, shouldn't be possible. He had to know, he was a smith for the royal guard.
Ponies have never used full body armor, because any such armor ever created for a pony would reduce their maneuverability extremly. Any armor that completly covered the legs made it difficult to run and more important to change direction. Sitting down was pretty much impossible or at least very uncomfortable. Additionally there was always the risc that the joints could get stuck or that some parts wouldn't be protected by iron if your hooves were in the wrong position.
From what Lyra has seen Confidants maneuverability wasn't reduced at all, nor could she see any unprotected joints of his body, although he was lying on the ground. The creator of the armor even made sure that his eyes were protected by some kind of glass.
Maybe the armor was crafted by humans. Maybe where existed a land far away, where humans lived in greater numbers and fought against each other. It was a chilling thought, but what did she expect? As creatures of chaos war might come just natural to them.
“Lyra?” Twilight asked, waited some moments and went on when she saw that she had Lyra attention. “What did he say?”
“He told me a bit about Bon Bon's new form. Didn't you hear him?”
“No,” Twilight answered, her right eye twitching, “he uses a spell to talk, that only affects one pony at a time. Additionally it seems, that he only understands the one pony he is talking to.”
“Really?” she turned back to Confidant. He just looked confused back at her. After some moments she realized, that he really didn't get Twilight's words.
Twilight sighted, “since he seems to like you, maybe he feels better if you ask the questions, Lyra,” she proposed.
“Why do you have to question him? What has he done?”
“As far as we know, these two... creatures have caused this madness.” Twilight pointed her hoof to the statues. Her head shivered a moment and she turned it into the other direction, her face paled a bit and she made a suppressed gag noises. Her friends were at her side immediately and after some seconds to recover she continued, “To be honest, I have no idea what they have done. Everything we find out about them and their spell might help us to end it. He,” she pointed at Confidant “seems to be a friend to the silver monstrosity and must know something.”
Lyra nodded while she looked at the statue she had assumed to be human. Now that she was close enough to see details, it became clear, that the only right guess she made was, that the statue was holding a sword.
Its body was covered with thick plates, that were engraved with strange patterns of lines. If she would have seen them alone she would have guessed, that they were forming an armor. But the head of it made her doubt that. The head was engraved like the plates, so she concluded, that it had to be of the same material as the plates. This meant the plates couldn't be an armor but had to be part of its body. Even beside that the head was like nothing she had seen before.
The shape was remotely human, but where in a human head should have been the eyes and the protrusion for the nostrils she just saw holes. Its mouth had no lips, instead she could see straight at its teeth. To the left and the right of the teeth were small holes that went through the whole head. It didn't have hair nor ears. The head scared her.
“What do you want to know exactly?” Lyra replied.
“Well we stopped, with the question what he knows about the two creatures.”
Twilight hurried home her friends close behind her. The interrogation of Confidant brought her new insights, but most of them were of the kind, that she never wanted to know. Still they wouldn't leave her alone on her way back.
The 'changeling', that has ridden him, was a monstrosity called Arlok. It used death magic, a line of magic, which main purpose, like its name implied, was to bring death. The mere thought of such a vile branch of magic existing made her shudder. Arlok traveled the land, they had come from, to kill creatures without any reason Confidant knew of. Or maybe which Arlok made sure he didn't know anymore. That was another thing, that made her shiver. She had found out, that it had used a spell on Confidant to manipulate his memories.
She could come to this conclusion, because of a revelation, that she did like. In the course of the interrogation, he had explained, that he couldn't speak. Instead he used a spell, transmitting, what he wanted to say. Therefore she had deduced, that the strange substances, she could see since whatever Arlok and the wolf have caused, had to be visualizations of magical energies and structures.
With this knowledge she had found an inactive magical link between Confidant and Arlok. Confidants end of it was surrounded by some spells, which originated from Arlok. One of these manipulated his brain, whenever he tried to remember something. She was sure, that it suppressed anything Arlok didn't want Confidant to know.
He still defended it fiercely even when he was confronted with her findings. Arlok harming him was completely impossible in his eyes. Even if it has used such magic, he stated, it did so with good intentions.
That the wolf was bound by creation magic, was the only thing, they found out about it. This magic gave it the ability to create living beings, to make life grow and change spontaneously. He described it as uncontrollable and highly chaotic, eating the sanity away from those who used it.
After they ran out of questions for Confidant, they discussed what they should do with him. Lyra had accepted the responsibility to help Confidant to adapt. Bon Bon was not enthusiastic about it, but was persuaded to help her housemate.
The three had left for the house of the two girls, but only after Twilight made sure, that Lyra would report to her, if Confidant would do anything suspicious. She didn't think, that Arlok could control him anymore, but some precautions surely couldn't hurt.
Twilight and her group reached the library. Since she was deep in thoughts, she tried to cast the spell to open the door. The problem was, that the door didn't open. In fact, she couldn't even see magic touching the door. This caught her by surprise, therefore she couldn't stop herself anymore. Moments later she crashed at full speed into it.
Her vision was filled with stars and her muzzle hurt almost as much as her neck and she felt, that she was slowly sliding down the door. She collected her wits, while Fluttershy lend her a helping hoof to erect herself again. “Are you hurt?” she asked concerned, inspecting Twilight.
Twilight was standing on shaky legs. She heard suppressed laughter from behind, that ended abruptly with a short whelp from Rainbow Dash. Why didn't … was her first thought, that was almost instantly interrupted by dawning realization. She looked upwards and her worst fear was confirmed.
She wasn't a unicorn anymore. She became numb to the headache and wasn't aware, that her plot sagged to the ground. Slowly the initial shock faded. Panic tried to overwhelm her, but she could suppress it, although only barely. The Elements of Harmony will make everything alright, WE will make everything alright, she told herself to quench her fears.
She forced her self to look resolute and opened the door by hoof. It felt odd and she wondered, when was the last time she used her hoof to open a door. She couldn't remember, but maybe this was only the case, because she would have never thought, that this might ever be important to her.
While doing so, she became aware of her own substance in her hoof. It was like clay, similar to Rainbow Dash’s and still somehow completely different. She felt stupid for not suspecting something that obvious earlier. It was nagging at her and wouldn't let her think clearly. She closed her eyes and took some moments to do the breathing exercise Cadence had shown her to calm her self down.
It amazed her time and again, how well it worked for her. After only four deep breaths she felt calm. She opened her eyes to see a truly concerned Fluttershy standing beside her. “I'm OK,” she said to her friends.
She entered into her home. It was colder inside, than she expected. Not cold, in fact it was very pleasant, but still way to cold for her house on a summer afternoon. Her eyes fell on the showcase of the Elements of Harmony and her heart skipped a beat. A shriek escaped her, when she run to it to examine the Elements.
To her horror she had seen right. The Elements had reverted to the stone form, in which she and her friends had found them in the castle in the Everfree Forest. She couldn't feel any magic in them. The Element of Magic was gone. Her shock was so deep, that she didn't pay the orange ants in the showcase any attention, nor the fact that the pillow the Elements lay on was damp.
She heard of a plot landing unceremoniously on the ground followed by a small whimper. “Oh no!” Pinkie and Rarity said in unison, although it sounded completely different from each other. Rarity voice was full of dread, while Pinkie almost sounded mocking. Rainbow Dash rushed past them all, opening the showcase and inspecting one of the stones frenetically, panic written on her face.
“Listen,” Spike raised his voice, “I know that's a great setback, but whatever trick these monsters have used, I don't believe that they can defeat the magic of friendship. I'm sure your friendship is stronger than their spell. You have awakened the elements once, you can do it again.”
“Yes, your a totally right,” Pinkie said smiling, grabbing Applejack and Rarity for a group hug, which Rainbow, Fluttershy and Twilight joined in quickly. Spike stood a bit off, looking uncertain what to do himself. So Pinkie made the decision for him, “You too, Spike.”
“Really? But I'm not a bearer of an Element?” Spike said surprised.
“You're an honorary one,” Pinkie replied, supported by the others nodding. With a drop of 'liquid pride', how Shining Armor would call it, leaving his eye Spike joined in.
The spectacle Twilight saw now was of incredible beauty. Strands of magic, that came from the individuals of group, were mixing with each others forming magnificent patterns. A feeling of safeness and of acceptance surrounded them. From these patterns five branches grew out to the five Element stones. These branches didn't just grew straight to their destination, but divided themselves and formed blossoms that resonated happiness. Below her she could feel a faint mist of reassurance and reliability, that rooted them all, but her in particular to the world. It felt far different from the rest of this magical show, but she couldn't make out why.
When the branches touched the stones they became lights of different colors, emanating their respective virtues, floating towards the other five mares and forming the necklaces the Elements of Harmony used to be, while more branches with new blossoms, developed around them. From the treetop of their magic one another light emerged. She felt a warming calmness and firm determination extending from it. Seconds later she felt her tiara touching her head.
Twilight was overwhelmed by this majestic display and watched with little regret as this masterwork slowly faded. “Twilight?” Spike asked, waving a hoof in front of her face to bring her back to reality.
“I'm fine, I just enjoy the moment,” answered Twilight with a smile.
After some moments, she broke off the hug and walked back to the door, “Let's get moving, we have to set things right.”
While they were walking towards the statues of the two combatants, she studied the magic of the others. She didn't need to turn around to see it, she seemed to be able to sense magic in every direction.
Since the restoring of the Element she could see that they all shared magical bonds. They were unlike than the link between Confidant and Arlok. The link seemed incredible thin, dense and cold to her. It was unnatural. The bonds she shared with her friends were more a feeling of connection, gaseous but at least as strong as the link. They were full of live and somehow seemed to be a natural part of them.
---.---
An eery silence lied over Ponyville. The streets and the sky were deserted and the window shutters in most houses they passed by were closed. Some clouds used their chance to fly over the town without some overeager pegasus bothering them.
Spike was walking right behind Twilight and next to Rarity, who had an expression of fierce determination in her eyes. She looked still astonishing. In fact in his eyes she looked even better than before the transformation. Next to Rarity was Rainbow Dash, whose face mirrored Rarities perfectly. Behind them were Applejack and Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie was at the moment happily bouncing behind everypony else, no, she just teleported and was now to the left of Twilight. She hummed a cheering tune and some seconds later she teleported again, leaving a small cloud of streamers behind. From the sound of her tune she was now next to Applejack.
They reached the statues and to his shame they were to his liking. Arloks silvery shining shell, that looked like an armor and his fearless charge at the giant wolf made him look heroic. The wolf on the other hoof gave a perfect enemy, a huge and powerful predator. In his comics this might be an epic fight between good and evil.
He knew, that the roles, who was good and who was bad were reversed at best, or more likely this fight was a greater evil versus a lesser evil.
Twilight took position in front of the statues, her face pale but determined. The others formed a semicircle behind her.
“Twilight?” he asked.
“Yes, Spike?”
“Is it possible, that you reverse the spell for everyone but me?”
“What? Why should you want that?” Her eyes went wide open, as her jaw fell and her head jerked a bit back.
He gulped, her reaction made him nervous. Still he took all his courage to answer, “I might be born a dragon, but I'm a pony at heart. The lifestyle of the other dragons is so alien to me as it would be for you. I would be happy, if I could live as a pony among you, it'll give me chances I'd like to pursue.” He forced himself not to look at Rarity, but he still felt the heat in his cheeks. After a short pause he added, “I also can do well without risking losing my mind just for gathering too many possessions.”
Twilight ears dropped while she answered, “I'm so sorry, but I fear I'm not able to exert such fine control over the Elements. Honestly, I think it is next to impossible to control the magic of the elements, once it is unleashed.”
“I see.” Spike looked downward. “Do what you must do.”
“I'm so sorry, Spike,” Twilight repeated her apology, while she closed her eyes to focus.
The necklaces of the other Mane 6 lit up. A whirlwind of colors came from them surrounding Twilight and gathering around her tiara. All six ponies lifted up and levitated some centimeters above the ground. She opened her eyes which were glowing. A fan of rainbow colors emerged from Twilight to the two statues engulfing them.
Spike watched in horror, that some seconds later a black lightning broke through it hitting Twilight. A moment it looked like she was surrounded, by the same green mist that this Arlok had, but it vanished with the lightning. Relieved he took notice, that beside a small flinch she didn't seem to be affected. After that the magic of the Elements formed a pillar that reached up into the sky. It extended outwards passing them almost immediately revealing the two statues.
Arlok's sword, which Confidant had called Destiny's End, was surrounded by lots of arcs of the black lightning, while the statues themselves remained unchanged. Confidant was really scared of the blade and warned them, that it shouldn't been touched in any way. The amount of arcs on the blade slowly decreased and gave view to the weapon, that has reverted again to be made of blueish-black metal. The grass in a circle of about two meter diameter around Arlok was slowly turning brown.
“Twilight!” he heard the others of the Mane 6 screaming.
Twilight lied on her back, her body twitched erratically. “We need to bring her to hospital,” Applejack commanded, but right after she said that Twilights legs sagged and her body came to rest. “Ouch...” moaned Twilight with closed eyes.
When Spike looked at Twilights face, he realized that her horn was still missing. He looked down at himself to still find hooves at the ends of his arms. One moment he was overjoyed, that his wish came true. The next moment this feeling was crushed by the guilt he felt, because of the high prize his friends have to pay for his pleasure.
“Where are my wings?” screamed Rainbow Dash, while trying to jump at Twilight, but was luckily intercepted by Applejack in mid flight.
“I understand your anger Darling, but Twilight is certainly not at fault,” Rarity stated with stern face and in a voice that demanded an apology.
Rainbow starred back at Rarity for a moment, before she lowered her eyes and mumbled a faint “Sorry.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow, but was stopped to pursue this any further by Twilight asking, “Wha... what happened?” Her eyes were closed and she was still lying in the grass.
“We don't know exactly, but as it seems, we...” Rarity made a short pause, visibly struggling for a way to sugarcoat the result without lying. After some moments she exhaled in defeat and finished her sentence with a depressed “... failed.”
“What?” Twilight sprang up into a sitting position, her eyes wide open. Here eyes fell on Applejacks wings, only to move upwards a moment later to look for her horn. “That's impossible, the Elements have done their work and ended the dark spell they used. I felt it!”
“What went wrong? What went wrong?” Twilight said to herself, her left eye twitching. “What will Princess Celestia say? Will she be disappointed? Will she send me back to magic kindergarten?”
Spike suppressed his urge to facehoof. “Calm down,” he said trying to sound sympathetic, but in his own ears it didn't work, “Your are a princess yourself, she can't do that anymore. Not that she would do it if she could.” He laid his hoof around her and sat down beside her. “She cares for you! You have done your best and she knows that. We will find a way to reverse this, I'm sure.”
He wasn't sure, if he believed in his last statement himself, but he garnished his words with the best reassuring smile, he could manage. He hadn't expect that it to work, so he was surprised, when she hugged him. “Thank you, Spike.”
“You're welcome,” he replied smiling relieved and hugged her back. Being hugged definitely felt way better as a pony than it felt as a dragon. He felt just more in every way, the sensation of her fur against his body, her body warmth and even his warm emotions.
After some moments he deeply enjoyed he decided, that it was time to tell the others, what happened. “When the magic of the Elements struck those two, the sword of Arlok stroke back at you, Twilight, with some kind of black lightning. I think that was the reason you went down after the power of the Elements left you.”
“How is that even possible?” Rarity asked shocked, “Even Discord couldn't fight the power of the Elements!” Some seconds of silence passed, while everypony was looking at Twilight, who was looking at the evil weapon. “I don't know,” she finally replied, “but as it seems Confidant was right with his warning. It shouldn't be touched, not even through magic. At least it shouldn't be able to do any harm as long as nopony tries to take it.”
As if the world tried to drive this point home a pigeon landed on the upper side of the hilt. It fell immediately to the ground like a stone. A shrieked outcry later, Fluttershy rushed to it, but was stopped by Applejack. “I don't think that's a good idea, sugercube!”
The body of the bird was lifted off and floated towards Fluttershy, who looked wide eyed at it. “Did I do that?” she asked a bit baffled more to herself, than to anypony else. Still she didn't waste a moment to marvel her new found magic ability, but inspected the poor bird. Tears were filling her eyes soon. “She's dead,” she whispered. The others offered their condolence and gave her time to mourn.
“We've got to do something,” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, after some time. “I won't sit here mopping. There must be something we can do.”
“Maybe Princess Celestia knows something, but...” Twilight started. Only Rainbow Dash didn't wait for her to finish her sentence. She started running after the word 'Princess' has left Twilights mouth, leaving her trademark rainbow trail behind her. Now she was already on the other side of the town, going straight to Canterlot.
Spike was impressed. He had never seen a pony, who ran that fast. In fact he hadn't even seen many pegasi flying that fast. He wondered if she might be able to do a sonic rainboom on the ground.
It was about ten minutes later. Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Applejack were back in the library. Fluttershy was bringing the dead bird to her cottage, but said she would join the others soon. Twilight decided, that she would try her old main strategy for any problem, she couldn't solve on her own: Looking for a book. The others helped her as good they could, but they all had the major problem, that they no idea what they were looking for. So they were all skimming through the books searching, but till now they only achieved to create an impressive mess for the short amount of time they had.
Suddenly they heard the door opening. Twilight turned around to see, that a huge, masterly carved door, with a golden door knob, in a matching door frame had somehow replaced the regular door of her house. An unknown creature, she guessed she was a draconequus, made her way through it and shuddered. The moment, when the door closed, it reverted to her normal door. Twilight need some seconds to comprehend, who she saw. “Princess Celestia?”
Celestia just nodded. Her head was quite similar to her true one, just two great fang protrude from her mouth now, she had the ears of a goat and her horn was far shorter, smoother and curved upwards. The rest of her body had changed far more. Her torso was that of a snake. Instead of her fore hooves she had a cat’s paw and a minotaur’s arm, while her hind legs were replaced by a bird’s claw and an ape’s foot. She had an oversized pegasus wing next to a wing of a griffon. Her tail was that of a zebra, which had the same colors as her mane, but was not ethereal.
Strangely the body didn't look as chaotic as Discords. Maybe it was the uniform white color of it. In fact she instead radiated order and authority, so Twilight bowed to her. She realized this, just after she had raised her head again. It dawned her, that the order and authority were at least partially magical.
“Greetings, Princess Twilight Sparkle and my dear subjects,” Celestia said, but somehow the warmth in her voice was missing. Twilight fears, that the princess would be angry at her, resurfaced but somehow she kept herself from panicking. “Rainbow Dash informed me, that you know the culprits, who caused this chaos.”
“Yes, they won't be able to do any harm anymore. They're sealed away,” Twilight replied eagerly, in hope that would lessen her anger for her failure.
“Then release them. They shall get a trial and a chance to undo their crime.”
Twilight’s eyes widened in shock. “No, that's...” she exclaimed, but was cut off by a disapproving glare of her mentor. She shied away under it, but she knew she couldn't let this happen. She exhaled deeply to calm herself further and to get some time to prepare, what she would tell to her mentor.
“In my opinion this would be a bad idea,” she begun. She then told Celestia the little they found out about the two and stressed the parts, that one of the monsters was able to manipulate minds and has used this ability against its companion, that its weapon seemed to be immune to the power of the Elements of Harmony and that it brought pain to everypony touching it, even if done through magic.
---.---
Celestia followed Twilight and the others to the two statues. It was a good thing, that they had left the chaotic library, somehow she had felt extremely uncomfortable in it. Sadly, another problem appeared to annoy her: walking in this dreaded body. She had started walking on all fours, but it felt uncomfortable for her, so her body switched to walk just on the hind legs, whenever she didn't focus on it. She had stumbled every time, when she realized that this has happened and she then forced herself to walk on all four legs again.
She did trust Twilight, but it seemed wrong to her, to seal them away without even giving them a chance to explain themselves. It made her feel like a tyrant. On the other hoof, if they abused her sense for justice to bring death and misery to her little ponies, she wouldn't be able to bear the guilt. So she hoped, that seeing the statues may help her decide.
As she should have expected after the events of this day, the statues didn't do her that favor. The creatures were hideous and their pose barbaric. The black-blue sword in the claws of the one remembered her of the chaotic times, before the union of the pony tribes. But they were both unknown to her. Neither even by far resembled any of the enemies Celestia had faced to protect her subjects. Even the wolf was far different from the wolves, that had roamed the land long ago. They were alien to her, she had no idea, what their motivations could be. Maybe they were just misunderstood.
She thought desperately for a way to guarantee, that those two wouldn't do any harm, while she could interrogate them, but found none. As she had stated to herself, they were alien to her and if what Twilight told her was true, their powers were alien to. How could she possibly ensure, that they wouldn't harm her ponies, if she didn't even knew what they could do?
She sighed.
“Celestia,” Twilight said, “there is another thing you should know. The sealing of Elements seems to be... vulnerable. While as far I can see it, it cannot be overcome from the inside, it is far less resilient against support from outside. We have to make sure, that nopony will try to do something like that.”
“Why do you believe, that anypony would do so?”
“I'm not sure...” Twilight paused a moment, looking at her grinning, scratching her head “but sadly I've seen ponies playing careless with forces they couldn't control, I just want to be sure.”
Celestia was proud of her former student. She had overcome her shyness in front of her and told her straight, what she meant. Sadly she had other things to focus on: What Twilight said was right. She knew very well, that many ponies thought, nothing would be willing to harm them and acted carefree. Normally she took pride in the fact, since she had helped to make this belief true. At least as long as they stayed near to their homes and no ancient evil decided to break free from their prison.
She surely couldn't bear it, that they might be harmed or even die, because they thought they were safe.
Slowly Celestia nodded. “These creatures have to stay locked away. I therefore decree, that releasing them is forbidden. They shall be brought away to a secure place, to further reduce the chance of their escape.”
She hated herself for what she had just said. Two creatures, that might be harmless to her and her little ponies, would suffer for the safety of her wards. At least they couldn't die in there, since their bodies didn't age inside.
That last thought was intended to soothe her, but in hindsight it did terrify her. They would suffer eternally. Her decision was a mistake, she had no doubt anymore, but a mistake she didn't dare to correct.
“Twilight!”, a female shouted from behind.
Celestia turned her head into that direction without moving the rest of the body. A huge unicorn stallion and two weird creatures, that seems to came right out of Discord’s mind, approached them.
The unicorn was at least as big as she has been as an alicorn. He had yellow fur, orange eyes and an unkempt green mane. He lacked a cutie mark at his flanks, but had instead an eight-sided snowflake slightly above the left hoof. Maybe a strange anomaly, caused by whatever the two sealed creatures have done.
The first of the creatures looked like a mixture of a great bunch of creatures like ape, pig and minotaur to name a few. She had a mint green mane with some white strands, shining yellow eyes and was wearing enough clothes for two or maybe even three nobles. She was walking just on her hind legs.
The other had the body of a big and strong mare up to the shoulders, but instead of a neck she had an upper body like that of the first creature. She had a pink and dark-blue colored mane and light blue eyes. Her upper body was like the first ones almost completely covered with clothes. She had also brought a plain-looking black book, which she was holding in her left paw of her non-pony part.
The two creatures bowed to Celestia after some seconds. Quite likely, that was the time they needed to understand, who she was. Well, at least they tried to, while the unicorn failed to follow the proper protocol and just stood beside them, blinking rapidly with his eyes. Luckily for him her attention was centered on the other two newcomers and their antics.
The creature with the pony body bend her fore legs and lowered her head a bit. It looked a bit strange, but that might be because she looked already strange without bowing. The other bend her neck and seemed to try to pull both of her hind legs back simultaneously. She failed and lost her balance, flailed with her arms, but that didn't stop her to fall onto the ground. She could barely stop herself with her strange paws from smashing with her disturbingly flat face into the ground. “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! I'm not used to that body, your highness,” she said. She brought herself into a sitting position. But kept her head looking downward.
“At ease, my little...” Celestia paused a moment to consider how to address her “... citizen. May I ask you, if you know in what kind of creature you have been transformed?”
“I became a human and Bon Bon became a centaur, both seem to be species from the land the sealed creatures and Confidant came from,” the human replied, pointing with her right claw at the unicorn, “May I speak to Princess Twilight, Princess Celestia?” the human at the ground asked, while getting back onto her hind legs.
“Of course you may,” Celestia answered. She had never heard of either kind. They had to live very far away.
“What is it Lyra?” Twilight asked.
“You asked us to tell you if we find something strange and while we helped Confidant out of his armor, we found a book in his saddlebags, that startled us.” Bon Bon answered, walking to Twilight giving her the book, “The book is written with strange symbols we couldn't read. Confidant on the other hoof, could, although quite slowly. He said that it's title is 'Death magic', additionally I have the feeling, that there is something wrong with the paper.”
“I'll make sure, that it will cause no harm to anypony,” Twilight said, while taking the book under her arm “Were their other things in there?”
“Ehm... well, yes. There was a strange knife made of some black metal, and some other things, but we think, nothing is even nearly as scary as that book.”
“Still, I should look through them and see if they're safe.”
“Well, sure. If I may ask, do you know, when we will turn back and what will happen with those two?” Lyra asked, nodding her head in the direction of the two statues.
“Those will stay sealed away for the safety of everyone else. They will be brought to a place, where we can make sure, that nopony will try to help them escape.” Celestia answered a bit louder, than she wanted.
Lyra turned her head to Confidant and to Celestia confusion retold what she just said, “I'm sorry Confidant, but Princess Celestia said, that Arlok and the wolf will stay locked away.”
Confidants hind legs gave way and his eyes went wide open. His mouths corner's turned downwards and his mouth was slightly open. But only after some more moments, when finally tears welled from his eyes, Celestia realized, that he was in grieve. She was puzzled, why she didn't get this before. But what terrified her was, that she didn't feel any sympathy for the fellow. Not even now, although she demanded it from herself. He was lying on the ground now, his tears streaming down watering the grass, while Lyra was sitting beside him, petting his head, while whispering something to him.
Her heart was as cold, as that of the tyrant she was becoming or maybe already was.
While Celestia was trying to cope with this unpleasant truth, Twilight answered the other question: “I'm sorry Lyra, but we don't know. The Elements of Harmony were not able to accomplish it and we're now looking for another solution, but I fear that it will take a while. I recommend, that everypony tries their best to cope with this for now.”
Bon Bon eyes went wide, while her corners of her mouth fell even deeper than before.
“To be honest, if the Elements of Harmony can't fix this, I don't believe there is any other way it could be achieved, especially since all our mages lost their magic and even I as a draconequus can't do anything about this,” Celestia added, since it irked her, that Twilight obviously tried to leave out this information.
Bon Bon eyes rolled up and she fell sideways onto grass. Lyra, Rarity and Twilight rushed towards her to help her. Celestia knew she should be shocked about this, but she felt nothing for that mare, but annoyance for the mess Bon Bon has caused with falling unconscious.
She looked at the barbaric statues. Wasn't she now a monster as much as they were? Her heart has become stone, while her words were harming those she wanted to protect. Maybe she should also be sealed away for the sake of her little ponies.
No, she couldn't run away from her duty just because her body betrayed her. These two have caused so much misery to her dear subjects, who needed guidance in this dark hour. She would do her best to give it to them. Her heart might be gone, but as far as she could see her mind has remained intact. She would find a solution.
She sighted. It sounded all well in her head, but doubts crept into her. What if her actions harmed her ponies without her being able to see it? What if her mind was becoming like her body without her noticing? What if she failed?
While she was in her dark thoughts, she saw how the others worked together to bring Bon Bon home. It seems Lyra has calmed Confidant enough, that he would carry Bon Bon, while the wielder of the Elements of Harmony tried to lift her onto his back. A small smile appeared across Celestias face, while she went to aid them. She didn't have to do this on her own. Still, she had to be careful, who she would burden with that knowledge. Otherwise, asking for help might cause the panic she was trying to prevent.
Confidant couldn't stand up at first, but after closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he erected himself and walked forward baring his teeth, while Lyra, supported by a flying Rarity, made sure, that her friend didn't fell off.
When they were some steps away Celestia noticed, that his hooves and legs were covered in a thick layer of hardened mud. She looked back and saw to her disdain, that at the place, where he started, were four lengthy holes like big scars in the otherwise well kept lawn.
A snip with the paw later, this mess was brought to order and for the first time after the transformation she felt a bit relief. She didn't waste a thought why, this made her feel better. She had decided, that she needed to talk to her sister as soon as possible.
She felt, how her magic has formed a door to her sister. For some odd reason it had replaced the of the nearest house and not just appeared right beside her. She gave her farewells to her subjects, before she rushed to that door, hoping nopony else would use it before her.
It was a warm and sunny day in the Crystal Empire. Shining Armor and his love Cadence were sitting in a private dining room in one of the highest floors of their castle, which granted them a magnificent view at their city. They were eating lunch, but honestly Shining Armor wouldn't be able to answer, what he was eating without looking down. His magic and his mouth did it automatically, while he did a far more important thing: enjoying the view on and the conversation with his beautiful wife. She amazed him still like on their first date.
Suddenly a flash of light blinded him. When his vision cleared his eyes went wide, where his Cadence have been, was now a pink changeling queen with purple eyes and a mane similar to Cadences one, but with some holes in it. Her slitted eyes were of the size of saucer and her mouth hang open, showing her fangs.
He has been tricked again. Another changeling queen has dared to take the place of his loved Cadence, trying to feed of his love for her and to brainwash him. “What have you done to my wife?” he yelled, while smashing the heavy crystal table with his left hoof to the side. The changeling jumped of her seat and ran to the open balcony, screaming in terror. With a powerful jump over the balustrade, she lifted off. Her wings were beating far slower than those of the changelings at his wedding did.
Without thinking he jumped after her, biting her tail to stop her escape. But to his horror it ripped and he fell with his back first. He screamed, seeing his life pass in front of his eyes. He felt wetness under his eyes, while he closed them. It was not for himself. I failed you again, Cadence, echoed through his head for the couple of seconds, that seemed to stretch into eternity.
The impact was different, from what he expected. He felt only a distant pain in his back and in his head. The main sensation was the sound of shattering crystals and a panicked scream from beside him. The floor felt warm, but dry. He heard hoof-steps coming near. Opening his eyes he saw the same sky as he had when he fell.
An earth pony came into his view. He looked remarkably similar to Doctor Medicine, a doctor from the hospital near the castle. The doc had supervised Shining’s healing of a broken leg, he got from an accident while training the recruits. The white fur, the red mane, the pink eyes, the brown bottle with a heart on the label as a cutie mark and even the serious frown were exactly like Medicine’s. Only one thing was different. Doctor Medicine was a crystal pony not an earth pony.
“Am I dead?” Shining Armor asked.
The response was a confused frown, followed by a quick inspecting look over Shining’s body. “Don't think so, you don't even seem to have bruises. I still should check you for broken bones or internal bleeding. How do you feel?”
“Uhm... Well... I think?” Shining replied. How did he survive a fall of about 100 meters? His mind tried to wrap around this, while he was examined by this earth pony Medicine.
“Well you seem fine. But can you tell me why your are coated in this metallic substance, mister?” the doctor asked, emphasizing the last word.
“What do you m...?” Shining stopped mid word, when his eyes fell on the front hoof he had lifted to look at himself. Like the doctor said it had a metallic shine to it. By close inspection he could even see a deformed mirror image of a metallic pony head. A metallic pony head without a horn.
His eyes slowly raised upwards, scared to confirm what he had seen in his hoof. After he couldn't find it with his eyes, he frenetically tried to touch it with his hoof. As this also failed, he exclaimed in total disbelief, “How is this poss...?” While speaking the most obvious answer came to his mind. Discord. Everything made sense now. At least as much as it could with this manifestation of chaos.
“You should come with me to the hospital, I'm a...” Medicine started, but Shining Armor interrupted him.
“I'm fine,” Shining Armor stated emphatically, “it seems I just need some time to understand some things.” He rolled away from Medicine onto his hooves and got a short glimpse on the quite impressive cracks he had caused at the street. “I thank you for your help, Doctor Medicine. Be assured that, we will bring everything back to order.”
Without leaving Medicine any time to reply he ran towards a side entrance of the palace. But before he made it there, he came to the conclusion, that he needed some special preparations to be done.
He turned around and ran back into the city.
---.---
Shining Armor was in front of the door to the sleeping room he shared with Cadence. He had a bouquet in his mouth and was balancing a huge box of chocolates and a card with a teddy bear saying “sorry” on his back. It was neither as much nor as perfect as he wanted, but it was all he could get.
Most shops were closed and it seemed most ponies were hiding in their houses. Only a group of kids had been roaming the streets having fun, not caring about or even enjoying their new forms. Most of the were still ponies, just not crystal ponies anymore, but he also saw two griffon chicks and a minotaur calf among them. The group was a heartwarming sight in the dead streets.
The only open gift shop he found was run by a pegasus mare, who was clearly stressed out and, as he found out a bit later, was trying to deny, that anything had changed at all.
Troubles arose from that, when he realized, that he didn't wear his armor nor any saddlebags and therefore had no money on him to pay. He couldn't go back to the castle, so he decided to tell her, who he was and that he would pay later on. She denied it, screamed it was impossible and called the guards. A single guard came. A pink changeling with pony-like purple eyes in the armor of the royal crystal guard to be exact.
His appearance was the final stroke, that broke the poor mare. She sagged to the floor, tears streamed from her face and in seconds a small pool had formed. “Take it!” she wailed, “Take it all and leave me alone!”
He felt horrible and made a step closer to say something reassuring to her. “We will make everything right again” and such stuff. But the mare screamed, when he was a meter away, “Leave me alone!” in a volume, that made his ears ring.
“Sir, may I ask you, what you are doing to that mare?” the changeling barked.
Shining suppressed his urge to facehoof. This situation had to look highly suspicious for that guard. “My name is Shining Armor. I didn't do anything to her,” he said calmly. The changeling guard had an unfazed impression on his face. “I just told her, who I am and asked her if I could pay a bit later. She didn't believe me, cried for guards and had a breakdown, when she saw you.”
“Is that true, Ma'am?” the changeling asked in a softer, but still serious voice. She had made herself as small as possible, her eyes clenched shut, crying and mumbling something under her breath. The guard came closer, but like for Shining, when he came as close as a meter she begun to scream frenetically.
The guard made some steps backwards. After some seconds he turned to Shining and took a good look on him. “Let us assume, you're Shining Armor. Why would you come here right after, this chaos erupted?”
“You see guard, Cadence was transformed into a changeling queen by the... Change. Since another changeling queen has tried to replace her in the past, I thought that she was an imposter too. I…” he made a short pause, thinking how to sugar-coat his actions. Finally he didn’t do it, but instead he told him blunt what happened: “Well, I went berserk and bite of a part of her tail, but she luckily escaped from me, before I could really harm her. Now I want to apologize to her and I thought that some gifts would help my case.”
The guard eyed him again, but then just nodded. “Even if don't know what a 'changeling queen' is, I believe you. I know that the princess had a small fight right after it happened,” he made a short pause and added then: “Don't ask me how I know it, I don't have the slightest idea. May I ask you a question, sir? Do you know, what happened to us?”
“Discord, the Incarnation of Chaos happened to us. But stay calm, I don't think this will last very long. When my sister Twilight finds out about this, she will end his so called hijinks. If we're lucky, by turning him to stone, so that he cannot harm anypony ever again. I will write her a letter right after Cadence and I are reconciled,” Shining said in a loud firm voice, hoping that the shopkeeper might hear him too.
Sadly, she didn't show any reactions. The changeling soldier helped him get some stuff and paid for him and escorted him to the palace.
He blinked, he was still standing in front of the doors to the sleeping room. He felt uneasy and asked himself if this was really a good idea. But he knew that he had no other choice.
He knocked, but nothing happened. He knocked again, louder this time, even louder than he expected. He didn't realize the thin cracks forming in the door. Silence. He knocked a third time, stronger again. At least he wanted to knock, but instead the large double door burst open. Dumbstruck, he stared at the now open door, then at his steel coated hoof and again back at the door. He didn't even used half his strength to do this. It scared him a little, but it fascinated him much more.
He shook his head to get his mind to things, that were important now. He saw a pile of bed sheets beside the bed, under which somepony was struggling. “I'm shorry, Cadanshe,” he said, while he tried not to bite through the banquet in his mouth. “I'm shorry for earlier today. I couldn't know, that Dishcord would dare to turn you into a Changeling Queen.”
“He did WHAT?” he heard her from under the sheets. It was muffled and she sounded hoarse. Her struggling increased, but it seemed, that her cocoon of embroidered silk just got more tense.
“Let me help you wis that.”
After a heroic, short and quite one-sided fight, he freed his beloved princess from the monstrous bed sheets. She was worried at first when she saw him, but after some seconds, a smile formed on her face. It was almost as beautiful as before.
“For me? Oh, thank you, Shiny.” She threw her fore legs around him, giving him a hug while she discovered the second part of his appeasement offerings. She held the hug, for a short while. “This is so sweet, honey. Thank you so much, I feel so much better now,” and in fact she didn't sound hoarse at all anymore.
Only moments after she said that, he felt her flinch. “Be silent,” she whispered. Shining retracted his head confused. She made some steps backward, holding a hoof against her head. Her eyes filled with fear were searching the room for something. “Please, leave me alone!” Shining backed off completely confused. When Cadence saw, what he was doing she pleaded “No, Shiny I didn't mean you. Please, stay with me. Help me, make them stop!”
“Help you with what, my dear? What'sh happening?” Shining replied, dropped the flowers, looking around searching for anything strange, but found nothing.
“Don't you hear them whisper?”
“Who? What do they say?”
“I don't know,” she answered, “It started, when we... changed, since then I hear whispering. The numbers of voices varies and I can only understand single words. The voices seem to come from everywhere.” She was shaking. “Am I getting crazy?”
He shook his head and pulled her back into a hug, ignoring the chocolate falling from his back. “Everything will be okay. It's just a sick prank of Discord. We have to keep strong, until Twilight solves him. We should inform her right away.” He wanted to move to get a messenger, but she held him tightly, and he felt something wet dropping onto his neck. He opened his mouth to insist, that they need to send a messenger now, but decided differently.
Cadence needed his support now, while changing everything back to normal would take time. Twilight would need at least a day to come, even if they would find a way to send her the message instantaneously. So being turned back some minutes sooner or later wouldn't make a big difference. So he did his best to allay Cadence fears.
Queen Chrysalis was still sitting dumbstruck on her throne, in the main chamber of her hive. Or better yet in the largest cavern of the cave system her hive had found shelter after being defeated in Canterlot. It has been almost half an hour, since a flash of magic silenced the whispering of the hive mind. Half an hour, since she lost the sense of her life. She didn't know how that was possible, but she knew that her changelings were gone. Instead of them dragons, minotaurs, griffons and a great number of dreaded ponies roamed her hive and her provisional throne room. She was aware that they were there, but she ignored them. Even those who had waved their claws or hooves in front of her eyes.
She had other problems at the moment, than those lowly creatures. The thoughts, which circled in her head were dark enough to crash her. She had failed. Her hard and more and more desperate work to save her race was in vain. She had broken the vow to her mother. The vow to save the changeling race from extinction. Her hive was lost now. The last changeling hive was gone.
A part of her mind told her to kill herself, that she didn't deserve to live anymore. It might have won soon, but then she heard a faint whisper in her head. She didn't understand what it said, but she was sure what it meant. It was a command of a changeling queen. Not to her. No queen would dare to command another around.
Another queen. Hope glimmered in her. Maybe not all was lost. She could still be useful for her kind. She erected herself and marched towards the exit of the hive. She still did her best to ignore the pathetic creatures she came across, while leaving the tomb of her dead hive. They were of no use to her. They didn't have emotions, which she could rip out of them nor could she stand even the thought of eating the flesh of sapient creatures, even such unworthy ones like them.
After some minutes walking through the hasty broadened tunnels she reached the gates of the cave system. Most guard posts were vacant. Just on one without any way to the ground was a forlorn unicorn. “Madam!” she called down, but Chrysalis couldn't care less about that scum, in fact she increased her speed. “Please, I need your help!” her voice becoming more desperately, causing Chrysalis to fall into a gallop.
It was far hotter, when she expected. Still, she didn't let that stop her and raced in a straight line, right towards the other queen. She couldn't maintain this speed for long. Soon, she was out of breath and her run changed into a walk.
The ground below her was barren sand, only rarely interrupted by patches of dry grass. Here and there a larger rock or a cactus were visible. In her peripheral vision she saw something grass green were her hooves were, but didn't bother to take a closer look.
After she caught her breath she tried to lift off, but for some reason she couldn't. She didn't bother to find out why. It didn't matter, she would reach the other queen eventually.
She walked for hours. The sun burnt down merciless at her. Hunger, thirst and fatigue were constantly nagging at her. But she forced herself to move on. Her hooves felt heavier and heavier with the passing hours.
The sun had almost set, when she reached a small village of disgustingly bright colored wooden houses. The streets were abandoned, but she saw light in some houses. She didn't waste a thought about what kind of pests could live here and why they were hiding.
Her feet were like lead, but she dragged herself through the empty streets. She didn't want to rest. She couldn't rest. She had to move on, she had to reach the other queen as soon as possible. But almost right after she left the town her body betrayed her. Her fore legs gave way and she fell onto her snout tasting dust. She growled, but her legs remained uncooperative. To make matters worse she had to fight her eyelids from falling.
For her the struggle went on for eons and she mustered all her willpower to fight off her exhaustion and to keep her eyes open. Still, she was slowly losing it. Finally, her eyelids fell and with them she fell into a deep dreamless slumber.
---.---
Chrysalis awoke with an unknown, but wonderful smell in her nose. Above her were wooden planks and she was laying on something soft and aside from her head she was covered by something. Her stomach grumbled violently, like it tried to make it clear to her, that it wouldn't be ignored any longer.
Confused, she brought herself into a sitting position, to examine the area better. She was in a bed in a small room with plain furniture and bright yellow walls. It was quite likely in one of the houses in the town, she had passed the day before. At least the window in the room showed her an amazingly boring view of mostly barren soil like she had seen during her march.
She wondered why the owners of the house would bring a changeling here, but before she could come up with a good reason, a pony stallion walked through the corridor next to her room. When he saw her, he changed direction and entered her room.
While doing so she got a better look at him. He had yellow fur with some orange-brown stripes on it. He had a strong build, even slightly stronger, than this captain of the royal guard of ponies, she had feasted upon. His mane had an alternating pattern of the same colors as his fur. He wore a brown vest and one of those strange hats ponies in this region wore. His warm green eyes were looking at her and a small smile was on his face. All in all he looked exotic, but was strangely appealing... Definitely just in a culinary way. He was just a pathetic pony! He was just some delicious piece of food. It was impossible, that she could like him in any other way.
Oddly she couldn't feel any emotions she could take from him, although he definitely showed care for her. Maybe he was hiding them from her. Impossible, ponies are incapable to do that.
“Ah, you are finally awake. How do you feel?” he asked, sounding relieved.
She wanted to answer herself but her stomach decided to go first and growled loudly. She blushed and replied, “I'm hungry.”
“Well, as expected. I've already brought you some food and something to drink. Feel free to serve yourself.” He pointed with one hoof at a bedside table, where she found a small tray with some apples and a cup with a transparent, orange liquid. The apples looked as disgusting as fruits always did to her and she needed to drink that stupid stallion dry of his emotions instead of that cup.
Still she had to keep her masquerade. He might be a pony and therefore his intelligence couldn't be that great, but she shouldn't be too careless again. She was far too weakened and couldn't afford it, that he would turn against her.
So she took a bite of one of the apples. Her eyes widen in amazement. That was the best food she had ever eaten. Without any thought about mannerism she gulped the apples and downed the juice.
He whistled. “Amazing, I didn't expect you to be that hungry. I'll bring you some more.” He smiled at her, took the tray onto his back and left the room, leaving her with an odd, but nice feeling in her chest and a strange warmth in her cheeks.
A residue of the taste was still lingering on her tongue and she truly craved for more.
No, she didn't like those apples. Why would a royal changeling like the food of her meals? She just had played the role of a starving pony so well, that she even believed it herself for a moment. Likely, she had also fed on his emotions, which had to be the real reason for the good taste. It was obvious to her now that, that the flash, which had eradicated her hive, while unable to kill her, has blinded her ability to see the emotional energies of her victims. Luckily, she retained her ability to feed on them, even though she couldn't control it anymore.
She looked at her hoof. It was a grass green fur-covered hoof of a pony. She couldn't remember, disguising herself as a pony, so she must have done it subconsciously. She was impressed by herself for that deed. Even though shape changing isn't difficult in itself, it normally needs focus and a clear image of the new form to do so. Additionally, it should have ended, when she fell asleep unprepared.
She felt proud for her new found mastery of her abilities, but her train of thoughts was interrupted by the delicious food bringing her the tray with more apples, a bit of hay, her cup and a can with apple juice.
“I'm sorry, that I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Braeburn and your are here in my house in the lovely town of Applelooooosa,” he said, stretching the last word far too long. After a short pause he asked, “What is your name?”
“Chrysalis, qu...” she replied, just to comprehend moments later, how stupid it was to tell him this. She could just barely suppress herself throwing her hooves in front of her muzzle. Maybe the sun had burnt her brain on her journey here. How could she tell a pony her name? What if he could link it to her kind. At least she didn't told him her title. She forced herself to calm down. He was just a lowly pony. His kind should be ignorant of her name.
She heard the whispers of the other queen again. They were slightly louder than before, but she still couldn't understand them. But they sounded scared and desperate. She had to hurry, otherwise there might be no other queen anymore, when she reached her destination.
“I have to go,” she demanded, while sliding out of the bed, taking a short look onto her own side. She grumbled, since her disguise was of the most pathetic pony tribe: earth pony. This ruled out the possibility to just open the window and fly off. She couldn't risk that the townsponies would see her true form.
“I don't think, that would be wise,” he replied, while trying to stop her. “You had almost run yourself to death, when we found you. You need rest.”
“I have an important task, I've been delayed far too long,” she stated making a step forward.
“But...”
She glared daggers at him, which caused him to retreat some steps. She walked past him towards the door.
After some moments he followed her. “You should at least take some supplies with you,” he resumed his talking, “Where do you need to go?”
“That's too kind, but you've helped enough, I just can't take this offer,” she replied in a far too kind way. At least she dodged the question.
“I have to insist. The next town is more than a day of travel away and you'd die of thirst, if you go there without at least something to drink,” he argued.
“No, that's...“ she started, but stopped when he touched her shoulder.
She turned around and looked into his concerned face. “Please.”
She couldn't say no even though she really wanted to. She sighted defeated, “Good, I'll take some.”
“Perfect.” A wide grin appeared on his face, which caused her to wonder, if that was kind of a trap. He brought her into a room with a plain table and some matching chairs and said, “Wait here, I'll be back in some seconds,” sat the tray with food on the table and was gone out of the door.
She sat down and waited. A part of her mind were panicking, elaborating what kind of traps he could set up for her. It was telling her, that she had to go now, to save the changeling kind. Another part soothed those worries telling her, that he clearly wouldn't do such things and viewed his smile again, what made her somehow happy and muted her worries.
“I'm shorry,” Braeburn said with a brown saddle bag, with bright green clasps in the form of apples, in his mouth and two hats piled over each other, evicting her from her daydreams. Again, she tasted the fine residue from before. Definitely his emotions were the reason for this. “I had a shmall convershation with a cousin.”
“Why do you have those with you?” Chrysalis asked, pointing at the second set of saddlebags on his back. They looked heavier, had a set of sticks attached to the bottoms of the bags and a small pot was dangling from a side.
He sat the saddlebags in his mouth down to get it free for the reply. “As I said, I talked to my cousin and we came to the conclusion, that it is too dangerous for you to travel alone, therefore we decided, that I should accompany you.”
“You don't have to...” she said, trying to stop him, but only half hearted. A watchpony should make her uneasy, but strangely it didn't. In contrary she was very happy about his decision.
“No, it's alright. We have to send somepony out-of-town anyway, because since... the Changing Chaos happened, no trains have come to town. Ehm...” He paused, “May I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“You weren't changed into another species in the last days, were you?”
Chrysalis panicked mentally, he couldn't have seen through her disguise. “No, no, definitely no!” She replied, shaking her head violently.
He just raised his eyebrow. “Okay, if you say so. Put your saddlebags on and take one of hats,” he pointed upwards with his left hoof to the pile of hats he wore, “and let's go, you were in hurry earlier.”
through the day before. She led the way, but he was only a muzzle length behind.
The march was uneventful for hours, she walked straight in the direction, where she felt the whispers of the other queen were coming from. From time to time, he forced her to make a short break in the shadow of a huge rock, where they drunk some water they carried with them. He also used a compass to check direction, but he didn't asked her to change the path.
Her gaze was directed to the horizon. Only sometimes she looked at him for no particular reason. He was searching the surroundings for something, quite likely threats. Whenever he turned his head in her direction, she forced herself to look forward, back to the horizon. Strangely she blushed, whenever that happened.
“Stop!” he whispered suddenly and she complied immediately. He pointed at a small inconspicuous sink right before them. “A scorpion lives down there and might get aggressive, when we walk over its home.”
“I...” She started, wanting to tell him, that she didn't care about the scorpion and that her shell would protect her. Luckily she realized in time, just how stupid such an answer would have been. Sure, they were alone and nopony could help him against her, but she clearly didn't want him to become hostile. She took a deep breath to get some time to think. “... thank you.” she finished with a smile on her face, which was far easier, than she expected.
“You're welcome.” He smiled back and again she had that nice feeling in her chest, while he directed her around the scorpions home.
Again, hours passed without any event. The sun was setting slowly, but it was still far from dark yet, when he told her, that they should set up their camp. Begrudgingly, she came to a halt, while he had already started preparing their stay for the night. He took the sticks from below his saddlebags and two pieces of cloth out of them and erected two little tents.
To her confusion he dug a hole into the ground, but before she could decide to ask, it seemed, that he found, what he was looking for: a wooden looking tuber. He fetched a knife and a small wooden plate from his saddlebags and removed the outer layers of the tuber. Below its dry shell, was a damp core, which he threw into his pot. He added something grainy from his saddlebags and stirred the mixture, causing it to become a mush. Strangely, the mush increased in volume while he stirred. A short while later he stored the water hose he had prepared earlier back without even opening it.
He took two wooden soup plates out of his saddlebags and filled into both some of the mush. He waved her to come closer. “Dinner is ready!”
“What is that?”
“It is porridge made with traveler's root milk. It is known for a bitter taste, but it help recover strength after long walks.”
“Enjoy your meal,” Braeburn said and dug in.
Chrysalis eyed him and the plate in front of her. He looked up, “It does not taste as bitter as I remembered it. Try, it is good.”
She lowered her head, closed her eyes and licked the mush. It tasted far better, than she had expected. Since her expectations were very low, that was in no way difficult. She was surprised, that she actually liked it very much. While she was eating, she already felt less exhausted than before. In the meanwhile the sun set and the full moon rose.
She had just finished her meal when he asked her, “Do you like the stars?” He had put his plate away and was now lying on his back looking into the clear sky.
Chrysalis was a bit confused by the question and looked upwards, since she had never bothered about them. She took some moments to inspect the thousands of white dots in the dark sky and the patterns they formed. After some moments, she looked back at him and replied dryly “No, they are even more boring, than I expected.”
Braeburn looked at her surprised for a moment, but then he forced a smile on his face. “That's unfortunate. I like them very much. They're a calming view and it's interesting to look for patterns, which resemble something.”
Chrysalis just raised an eyebrow, and looked upwards. She searched the night sky for any cluster of white dots, that formed some special shape, but after some minutes of focused searched she gave up. “I don't see any such patterns,” she stated flatly.
He got up sat beside her and pointed at a small group of stars. It consisted of a pentagon of stars, where the outer left star was very close to a second star and a bit below each of the two lower stars was another star. “This for example, is a bison,” he stated.
“I still see nothing.”
“Well,” he took a deep breath, “the double star is the head, the pentagon is the bulky torso and the to stars below are the hooves.”
She looked again at the stars and tried to see a bison. After his description it worked. More or less. With a lot of good faith. “Ahh, now I see it,” she said sounding far more enthusiastic than she expected. Although the topic was boring, she wanted to hear more from him.
They talked for quite a while. After some time she switched the topic and questioned him about his live. Even though his live sounded boring to her, she didn't stop to ask additional questions. The conversation came to an unexpected end, when he returned a question, “What do you do for a living?”
Chrysalis smile, which she had most time of the time they had talked, dropped. She couldn't answer this question, so she needed an excuse and she needed it fast. “Ohh, it's sooo late and I'm tired,” she said feigning a yawn, “I think I should go to sleep now. I wish you a good night.”
She got up and could hear him wish her a good night in a very confused tone.
She didn't bother though. She walked to her tent, pulled the blanket over herself, closed her eyes and was out like a bulb.
She dreamed of the time as the queen of her hive right after the defeat. Her changelings were weak and exhausted. Then Braeburn appeared in front of her throne. He vowed his loyalty and eternal love to her. With this statement he ascended from lowly pony to royal changeling, and he returned the strength of her subjects. Together they marched against the ponies that had wronged her. Braeburn defeated them for her and they celebrated the victory together.
Rainbow Dash was walking aimlessly through Ponyville. She was dragging her hooves, her head and ears hung low and her eyes were red, because of her crying earlier. The streets were only almost abandoned, so here and there a pony could see her state of misery, but she didn't care.
She dropped on the ground, her eyes looking towards the sky. The wide and limitless sky. Her beloved sky. Some extra-fluffy looking clouds crowded it, as if they wanted to tease her. It would be her task as a member of the weather patrol to remove them from the sky, as it would be her pleasure to take one as a pillow after the work was done. A memory of the softness of clouds came to her mind.
Again she felt the loss. She would never feel them again. She would never be able to buck them away again. She would never fly again. She was now chained to the ground, robbed of what defined her: the wings. She was just a pathetic shadow of her former self. She'd like to hide at home, but as so many things of her former live this was impossible.
She was now, like almost everypony else, who lived in a cloud house, homeless. She would have to ask Applejack if she could sleep in the barn, until she found a new home. But until now, she lacked the drive to even do that.
She heard some rustling from a hedge, but she felt to miserable to care.
“Hello, Rai...” a filly began, but she startled Rainbow Dash so much that she jumped straight upwards. She reached a height of maybe 10 meters. Luckily, Rainbow Dash’s reflexes made sure she landed like a cat on all fours.
“That was totally planned,” she stated, since she surely couldn't be scared by a filly that tried to sneak up on her. She turned to said filly, that was now miraculously standing next to her. She looked strange, but somehow familiar. Her appearance resembled roughly an earth pony mixed with some dragon features. Her fur was orange, her mane was a dark pink and she had purple eyes. But she also had a line of pink scales going from right under her mane to the tip of her muzzle and from there down to the belly. Her ears looked more like Spike's. At least like his, when he still had been a dragon.
That reminded her, that everypony has changed somehow and it became clear to her, who was standing in front of her. “Hey, Scoot. How are you?” Rainbow Dash asked, with a faked smile on her face, trying her best to suppress her self doubts in front of one of her most loyal fans.
“I'm fine, but you seemed so d...” Scootaloo said, but Rainbow Dash stopped her from finishing her sentence, by holding her hoof in front of Scootaloos mouth.
“I feel great,” Rainbow Dash said in a hoarse voice.
“You cried before I talked to you...”
“No, I had something in my eyes,” Rainbow said, while unconsciously bringing a hoof to her eye to get rid of a tear.
“You lied on the ground flailing with your hooves.”
“That was part of my training.”
“And you mumbled 'my wings' again and again.”
“OKAY! OKAY! I AM A LITTLE DOWN! NOW LEAVE ME ALONE!”
Scootaloo curled into a little ball of fur and scales strongly shaking. “I'm sorry, I didn't want to make you angry,” she whimpered.
Rainbow Dash was shocked by what she had done. She took a deep breath. She was never good at diplomatic bubbling, but she couldn't let that poor little one in that state. “I have to be sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you. You were...” she made her pause, because she had to wrestle down her pride, “You were right. I feel miserable, horrible even.” Again she had to struggle with her pride, she looked away, “It was wrong to take it out on you. Can you forgive me?”
She felt something hard and warm touching her breast, only to be followed by two short hooves surrounding her neck. “Sure.” She turned her head forward, and yes, Scootaloo was hugging her.
This was way too sappy for Rainbow Dash, but she didn't want to scare Scootaloo away again. For no other reason she let her go on with this. She even hugged back, to make the poor filly feel more comfortable.
She didn't know how long this hug went on, but surely several minutes. “Rainbow?” Scootaloo asked. Rainbow Dash looked down and their muzzles booped into each other. “Do you feel better?”
“Yes,” she replied with a warm smile.
“That's great. Now you can be awesome again,” Scootaloo cheered.
The smile fell again, “I'm not awesome anymore. I'm not the fastest flier of Equestria anymore. I can't fly anymore and likely never will.”
“That's not true!” Scootaloo exclaimed, “Okay, the second part maybe, but you are still awesome. I'm totally sure that you are now the fastest runner in Equestria, maybe you can even include some tricks into your running!”
“That's not the same...”
“No it isn't, but is it truly worse? I'm totally sure, that you're still faster than any pegasus could fly and you even leave rainbow colored hoof prints!”
“I do what?”
“Yeah, when you ran to Canterlot, we found some of your hoof prints and they shone in all rainbow colors.”
It was uncommon for a pony to leave much of hoof prints on paved roads, but to leave shining ones sounded very odd to her. But it was probably cool in a way.
“Can you show them to me?”
“Uhm... no, they disappeared after several...” Scootaloo started a bit nervous and paused, before her eyes widened and her head erected a bit more. “Wait, yes I can.” She pointed at a building next to them. “Could you run around that house?”
Rainbow facehoofed, why didn't she thought of this herself. She ran. The world around just shot past her, its direction changing abruptly with the 90°-turns she did. It was quite fun, but it was over far too soon. Moments after the start she already had to stop. Her front hooves touched the ground in unison and she stopped immediately.
Still she was a bit beyond her starting point at the first corner of the house. She heard Scootaloo saying “Weee!” with glee. Rainbow Dash ignored the already dissolving trail in air and turned around. Scootaloo was spinning, likely because of her rushing next to her. Then as the spinning died down, she bounced towards Dash. “Again! Again!” she said happily.
If Rainbow Dash would like cute stuff, she would find this totally adorable and a wide smile would have formed on her face.
Her attention fell to something shining on the ground, at the second corner of the house she had circled. She walked to it, finding two hoof prints close to each other. They were red orange at first, but changed to yellow and switched then through all colors of the rainbow to restart from red in a matter of seconds.
How was this possible? She never heard, that an earth pony left such a trail. She turned around. Scootaloo was still jumping, but Rainbow Dash focus was elsewhere. Behind her were four foot prints. Two at the position where she started and two at the position where she stopped.
She walked around the house. She found another pair of such hoof prints, before she reached the side were her run started.
She was quite sure, that those hoof prints had to be somehow magical. That was wired, since she wasn't a unicorn. So she was quite curious about the how.
This curiosity died with her smile from earlier, when she thought about how finding out something about it. Her first idea was to ask Twilight. A cold shiver run through her spine, while she imagined her egg head friend drown her in magic gobbledygook for minutes or maybe even an hour. She preferred ignorance over such a horrible fate and chose to change the direction of the conversation.
“How do you feel about the Change?” she asked, bracing herself for the sorrow of a young child and do her best to cheer her up.
“Me? I like it so far. I'm bigger and stronger now and I can put a hoof on a hotplate without burning it.”
“Why are you so sure, that you can do that?”
“I tried it?”
“Why would you?”
“I thought, that I look a bit like a dragon. So I should be able to do some stuff that dragons do. At first I wanted to breath fire, what I didn't found out how. Then I wanted to eat gems, but couldn't find any. Then I wanted to bathe in lava. Since I don't know any place with lava, I tried the next best thing,” Scootaloo explained with increasing excitement.
Rainbow Dash blinked. Rapidly. Her mouth was agape, while her mind tried and failed horribly at following the logic of that statement.
“What were you thinking? You could have got hurt.”
“No, I couldn't,” Scootaloo said a bit defensively. With more resolution she added, “As I said, it was totally a piece of cake.”
“But you didn't know that back then.”
“I was sure, what else would be the point in transforming into a dragon-like pony?”
“There was no point in the transformation, but misery!” Rainbow Dash's stomped her fore hooves on the ground, her voice became louder with every word. “It was done by two evil monsters!”
“But,... but I like it,” Scootaloo replied tears filling her eyes.
The anger evaporated, only leaving disgust behind. Disgust of herself. “I'm sorry,” she looked away, “Please leave, I'm a horrible pony to be around.”
“No, you just had a bad day. I'm sure you will feel better soon.”
“If you say so.” She forced her lips to curled upwards, while her eyes didn't move. “Bye,” she said and was gone. She was running at top speed away. Running away from a filly, because she couldn't handle the consequences of her own actions. She blushed in shame.
It took her some time to make herself to slow down. She was now in the park of Ponyville with the statues of the two culprits right in her view, but still a bit away. The cause of this calamity.
Anger gripped her again, she stomped towards the statues. She would give them a piece of her mind. She came to a sudden stop in front of them, when she realized that the ground around the metallic statue was littered with three new corpses of birds. Her determination faltered a bit, but still too much adrenaline rushed through her that she would stop. Only one monster was protected by the evil weapon.
When her hind hooves connected she heard a bloodcurdling howl. No, there was no sound: she felt the howl. She felt the agony she had caused. She turned around to see, that she had shattered the wolf statue. The pieces were lying scattered on the ground up to a distance of 25 meters. The head of the wolf was now looking in her direction. One ear has broken of the head and she could see cracks on its muzzle. She didn't pay it any attention before, but now that she was looking at it she just saw desperation in its face.
She had killed a helpless creature in anger.
The world around her blurred away. She was a horrible pony. She felt wetness on the fur below her eyes. What would her friends think of her? The world darkened around her.
She tried to tell herself, that it was had been an evil mindless beast, but this couldn't sooth her mind.
She shook her head in hope to clear her mind. After this she saw, that she was surrounded by trees. She was running through a dense forest. She slowed down again and recognized, that she was in the Everfree Forest.
She slumped down. She was scared of the forest, but a thought drained her of any energy to run away, as she has done the whole day. A fitting place for a monster like me.
---.---
Scootaloo walked towards Fluttershy’s cottage, her meeting point with her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders. They had planned for today to get some animal related cutie marks, although they didn't decided yet which ones they wanted to try. She was still sad, because the talk with Rainbow Dash and her panicked escape. She was truly worried for her idol.
“Hi,” Apple Bloom said coming from the direction, where Rainbow Dash had ran, “You won't believe what I’ve seen.” The Change had given Apple Bloom two curved horns, one on her muzzle and one on her forehead and shortened the tail to a length of maybe 10 cm.
“What happened?”
“Rainbow Dash was so angered at the mean wolf statue, that she bucked it so hard it exploded into pieces!”
“Where is she now?”
“I don't know, she seemed quite panicked after she did it and run away.”
“I hope she is fine,” Scootaloo mumbled, Apple Bloom just raised an eyebrow and wanted to say something, but when she saw Scootaloo's long face she stopped. Instead she tried to change the subject. “Granny is again helping with apple bucking. Although she is doing it with her fire breath.”
“She does what?” Scootaloo stopped and stared at her friend.
“She is a dragon now, but her breath just seem to burn apples, which appear in the bucket next to the tree they came from. Isn't that cool?”
“It's very cool,” although the enthusiasm lacked in her voice.
“Hi.” Sweetie Bell flew towards them with her huge butterfly wings from their meeting point. Her two antennas on her head bounced slightly when she landed in front of them. “Do you know why Rainbow Dash ran into the Everfree Forest?”
“No,” a shocked Scootaloo said. Gaining some resolve she added, “but we have to rescue her.”
“Rescue her?” Apple Bloom exclaimed, “Why should she need our help? She is the fastest pony ‘round and she bucks harder than Applejack!”
Scootaloo looked around if someone was watching them, when she saw nopony around she whispered. “The Change hurt her a lot and she is at the moment not herself. One moment she is shouting and the next she is crying,” raising her voice a bit again she stated with determination “She needs help, I can feel it.”
“But we are not allowed to go into the Everfree.” Sweetie Bell gulped. “There are far to many monsters.”
“A heroine don't know fear if somepony is in danger. Also, nopony but Rainbow Dash will know and she will surely don't tell anypony after we saved her live. We could also get our Cutie Marks rescuing her!” replied Scootaloo. With the most powerful argument for them on her side, every resistance against the idea died almost immediately.
They nodded to each other and with a cheerful “Cutie Mark Crusaders Rescuers, yay!” they run into the dark forest.
---.---
Rainbow heard a scream, no three screams of three fillies she knows well. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were in danger.
She was up in an instant and running in the direction the sound came from.
Her exhaustion, her fears and her self-loathing were gone from her mind as the world blurred around her.
She was needed.
She had reached them in no time. Scootaloo was lying, likely after stumbling, while her friends were running for their dear lives. A pack of five timber wolfs was behind them.
One of them jumped towards Scootaloo. Its mouth was wide open about to rip her into pieces.
The wolf bit the air. It came to a hold, looking around for its pray, that should now be between its wooden teeth.
Rainbow Dash had gripped Scootaloo in her mouth and made an abrupt turn to the left. Coming to a short stop to place Scootaloo, who was shaking with eyes closed, on her back. “You're safe now.”
“Rainbow Dash!”
“Hold on, I'll get the others.”
She was running again this time gripping Apple Bloom and also placing her on her back.
Seconds later Sweetie Bell, with her colorful, but luckily translucent insect wings, was dangling in Rainbow Dash mouth. She struggled, but the time was way to short, that she could really try to free herself.
Moments later Rainbow Dash stopped on a road in Ponyville and placed her on the ground.
“You saved us. Thank you!” Apple Bloom cheered and Rainbow Dash puffed her chest.
Sweetie Bell turned around, jumped towards Rainbow Dash and hugged her, while her wings buzzed to keep her flying. “Thank you. I was so scared,” she said with a slightly hoarse voice. She was shivering and Rainbow Dash felt something wet on her neck right next to Sweetie Bell's head.
“Everything is fine now. I’ll bring you home.”
She brought first Sweetie Belle, than Apple Bloom and as last Scootaloo home, while the fillies praised her the whole way. She felt proud and much better.
Before Scootaloo closed the door behind her she said with a great smile, “I told you, that you're still awesome.”
Maybe she was. She wasn't sure yet, but at least it didn't seem impossible anymore.
